In a previous post we touched on Search engine snippet optimisation and how to do it right but we felt there was a lot more that could be said about the title tag and it’s roll in internet marketing. Many SEOs don’t give the title tags of each page the time and attention that they deserve and as a result they end up not using them to their full advantage. As they are probably the most effective on page ranking factor that you can tweak to improve a websites search engine performance, this mistake can be costly.
Branding in the Title Tag
You may think that branding is not the most important factor to start with when considering the title tag. But we disagree. Branding is one of the biggest things you can do (when done well) to improve your overall web performance. If you can create a recognisable brand then you will receive more direct traffic, more click throughs in the rankings and more opportunities to increase ROI. And the title tag is a great place to advertise your brand.
A pages title tag appears in all sorts of places where a web user can see it; from the search engine snippet, to the top bar of their browser, to the tool bar at the bottom of their browser, to a directory listing or even a URL link from another site which automatically renders with the title tag from the linked to page (a lot of forums do this for example).
The way we brand our client’s title tag it is to add our clients brand name to the end. If the client has a name that is incredibly long such as “Simon Smith’s Sock Emporium of the West Country” then we will probably talk with the client about coming up with a more web friendly alternative (long brand terms aren’t the best for web marketing). So “Simon Smith” maybe a better alternative (keep the sock example and brand name in mind for later).
Keywords in the Title Tag
The most obvious thing that an SEO needs to do to the title tag is make it keyword rich. For the less knowledgeable readers out there; the title tag is a highly important ranking factor for most search engines, and is therefore one of the most important areas of a page where an SEO can place the relevant target keywords of a page. So the first thing you need to do is pick those keywords.
Keyword Research for the Title Tag
For the sake of clarity we’ll use the keyword “socks” as our example. Let’s say we have just created a new website for our client (“Simon Smith”) who sells a large selection and variety of socks. When we research the “socks” keywords we discover plenty of variations which range from the more common searches (one or two word searches which will usually be more competitive), right the way through to the “long-tail” (searches which contain 3, 4, 5 plus words within them and are usually less competitive).
Quick Tip: When you pick your target keywords for any page you should also be thinking about how competitive the site is (is it old, does it have plenty of links, is it already rocking the rankings) and pick keywords which you think will perform based on that and their position within the site. There is no point targeting high competition keywords with a brand new site unless you have plenty of money, time and patience to wait for that ranking to improve. Likewise, there is also little point targeting more competitive keywords on deeper pages as they generally have less ranking power.
We can’t stress enough how important it is to do this keyword research fully and painstakingly. If you’re doing keyword research and ending up with a list of 10 keywords then you’re doing it wrong. When we do our research we often end up with many 1000s of keywords and their variations. We always end up with short tail and long tail variations which can be placed in relevant groups. It is these groups which you need to assess when assigning keywords to a page and therefore it’s title tag.
Assigning Keywords to the Title Tag of each Page
Home Page Title Tag
In general a website’s hierarchy demands that you tier keywords by their levels of competition. So if we go back to our “socks” keyword example, what we probably want to do is target the top level page (the home page) primarily at the keyword “socks”. So, do we just add the keyword “socks” to the title tag and leave it at that? No! What we should also see from our keyword research are suitable long tail variations to pick up even more traffic and rankings which are far less competitive than the keyword “socks” on it’s own.
So we may spot “sock retailers”, “socks designs”, “buy socks online” or any number of other “sock” keyword variations which we can also assess (look at keyword data factors such as competition and commercial intent), choose and add to the title tag whilst still targeting just plain old “socks”. Lets say we way do all this and end up with three keywords for the home page “sock shop”, “Socks Online” and “Socks Quick Delivery” and we come up with the title tag (when added to the brand name we decided on earlier) “Socks Shop Online: Quick Delivery – Simon Smith”
Quick Tip: Go for keyword plurals if you can and it makes sense. Plurals generally include the singular as well, but not the plural. So the word “socks” is also targeting “sock”. (Although with our keyword example there probably won’t be many people using Google to find their lost sock, it’s usually tucked into the bottom of a pair of pants somewhere.)
Second Level Page Title Tags
With your second level pages you can afford to be more specific and use your title tags to target specific searches. Back to the “socks” example; we have a second level page on the site which is the “green socks” category so when choosing the title tag for this page we head straight back to our keyword research and check out the “green socks” group of keyword variations. From that we also see that “green socks for kids”, “green socks delivered” and various other long tail variations are being typed in. In the same way as the home page we can use long-tail keywords along side the more competitive “green socks” keyword to achieve more traffic and rankings.
So we will probably go for something along the lines of “Green Socks Online: Quick Delivery – Simon Smith”.
Quick Tip: You should continually be aware of every other page within your site and that you make sure not to duplicate title tags between two pages (e.g. if you have a second level site page all about “sock manufacturing” maybe you shouldn’t be targeting the home page at the keyword “sock manufacturer” as well).
Third Level Page Titles
It’s getting pretty obvious now so we don’t need to push this aspect to much. Third level pages are typically product pages or very specific so head back to your keyword research and see what you can find. In our example we might have a page linking from the “green socks” category which is specifically “green socks for men”. By this point you will probably end up with a title tag such as “Green Socks for Men: Quick Delivery – Simon Smith”. Obvious really!
Quick Tip: Blog pages are often a great way to use third level pages to target long term keywords. For example you’re keyword research may show that a lot of people are searching for “funny socks for Christmas present”. So, write a blog post about just that!
Title Tag Length and Format
What you should also be considering when creating these title tags is that the language you use can impact click through. You’re titles should be attractive, and this is even more important since the arrival of social media. For our example “socks” isn’t exactly the most exciting subject but you can still add elements to your title tag which motivate people to click. In our first home page title example: “Socks Shop Online: Quick Delivery – Simon Smith” we manage to incorporate keywords, long tail variations, positive conversion factors and branding to instil confidence and motivation in the viewer.
If you read our post on snippet optimisation you will have spotted the link to a great SEO tool from SEOmofo called the snippet optimiser. We highly recommend using this tool to make sure your title tags don’t exceed the ideal character length which (Google specifically) displays before it truncates.
Quick Tip: “&” (ampersands) are great for saving you some characters in the title tag. The search engines aren’t thick, they know it means “and”!
In Conclusion
Take into account all of these factors when creating your title tags and you can’t go wrong! But don’t make the same mistake as many and overlook how important the title tag is in the whole online marketing process.
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Good read. I think title tags are worth playing with. I’ve also seen some hints that title tag history may be playing a part. So you change your title tag and the previous keywords still remain relative in the searches.
Thank you gringo lingo. I’ve seen pages stay listed for old title tags as well. At the time I assumed it was due to anchor text of incoming links however, there is some potential investigation which could be made into whether old title tags are still somewhere in the index.
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